Xiang Li's research
The First Opium War (1840-1842) 1) Causes of the war The first opium war was between Britain and the Qing Empire in China from 1840-1842. As you can tell from the name of the war, it was caused by opium, or more precisely the smuggling of opium. At that time in Britain, custom of drinking tea was spreading amongst the upper class, which resulted in Britain importing a lot of tea, china, and silk from China. On the other hand, exports from Britain to the Qing Empire were expensive things like clocks and telescopes which didn't have wide appeal. Britain didn't have goods that can be mass exported so Britain had a large trade deficit with China. For the funding of the American Revolutionary war and capital accumulation of the Industrial Revolution, Britain decided to prevent the outflow of silver. For that, the Britain cultivated opium in India, one of their colonies, and smuggled it to China, thus making up the triangular trade*. In 1796, the Qing Empire had already forbidden the import of opium but smuggling of them still continued. Discipline and people`s health were getting bad and there was a serious impact on the economy of the Qing Empire. The plenipotentiary minister, Lin Ze Xu who was appointed by the Qing Empire as a governor to reduce and eliminate the opium trade, went to Canton and asked that all foreign traders sign a `no opium trade` agreement and those who break it will be punished by death. He confiscated all the opium that they had and burned it. The total amount of opium was over 1400t (After Britain won the war, Britain requested compensation from the Qing Empire for the opium that was burned.) In 1839, 3rd of November, Britain used Lin Ze Xu`s action (refusing opium and burning it) as an excuse to start a war. William Gladstone in the British parliament said that there are no causes of a war that are more shameful than smuggling of drugs. There were voting for deciding whether to send the army to the Qing Empire and 271 voted for and 262 voted against, so British send the British armed forces. The Qing Empire was surprised that the British navy suddenly came to attack Tian Jin so the Qing Empire fired Ze Xu to avoid war against Britain. In 1840 November, Britain sent a request to the Qing Empire to give them Hong Kong. The Qing Empire refused so British started a war. *Britain (Industrial product) to India {East India Company} (Opium) to China (Tea) to Britain Long term: smuggling of opium Short term: Lin Ze Xu stopping opium trade, burning opium, refusing to hand over Hong Kong to Britain. 2) Images: (Click on the number) http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/y9history/images/1/18/100363-004-6BAD5889-1-.jpg British attacking China on land http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/y9history/images/a/ac/ImagesCAFL9E8A.jpg British attacking Chinese ships http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/y9history/images/f/fd/Opium-poppy-1-.jpg Opium (flower, seeds, etc) 3) Type of war -Econimic -Colonization 4) Type of causes -Drugs -Economy -Commodities 5) Consequences of the war (End result) Hong Kong was handed over to Britain and the Qing Emipire paid compansation for the opium that was burnt. Illegal opium trade continued. The Qing Empire became weaker because more and more opium was imported and their commodities were exported. Lin Ze Xu was fired. In some Asian countries like Singapore, if anyone brings drugs in the country, they will get killed. It doesn't matter if they don't use it or they say that they didn't know they had. I think this is because they don't want to repeat the same thing because the main cause of the opium war is smuggle of opium. 6)